West Lawrence votes came in and carried Riordan to the third and final spot. He had been sitting in fourth for much of the night.

School bond: Was never close: Yes: 8,013; No: 3,082

Lawrence school board:

• Sanburn: 5,387

• Morse: 5,180

• Adair: 4,847

• Byers: 4,579

8:45 We’re getting near the end here tonight. While we wait, a couple of stories getting some talk at the courthouse involve City Commissioner Mike Amyx and former City Commissioner Rob Chestnut.

Several folks at the courthouse are remarking at how Amyx — a downtown barber shop owner and longtime city commissioner — continues to rack up votes year after year. Amyx now has a more than 1,200 vote lead in the race.

Chestnut during the primary came roaring back at the end of the night as West Lawrence votes started to come in. He finished fourth in that primary. There may be a surge coming, but he needs to make up about 900 votes at the moment.

8:35: With 72 percent of the vote in on the Lawrence School Board:

• Sanburn: 3,703

• Morse: 3,500

• Adair: 3,296

• Byers: 3,134

The Eudora City Commission race is done, with 4 of 4 precincts reporting. Jolene Born has taken the top at the expense of Scott Hopson, a current member of the governing body.

• Born: 204

• Reazin: 184

• Hopson: 162

• Trober: 79

8:30: With 70 percent of the precincts counted it is Amyx, Farmer and Soden, but the race between No. 3 and No. 4 is still within striking distance.

• Amyx: 4,707

• Farmer: 3,443

• Soden: 3,307

• Riordan: 3,034

• Criqui: 2,499

• Chestnut: 2,129

School bond: Yes: 5,334; No: 2,064. A no-doubter for the school bond.

8:20: Other area races are also coming in and some are tight:

Eudora City Commission (Two of four precincts):

• Scott Hopson: 91

• Jolene Born: 90

• Tim Reazin: 83

• Jerry Trober: 38

Eudora School Board (2 of 7 precincts)

• Eric Votaw: 125

• Michael Kelso: 104

• Joseph Hurla: 101

• Bryan Maring: 83

8:05 New results. It is Amyx, Soden and Farmer with with about 20 polling locations reporting.

• Amyx: 2,885

• Soden: 2,113

• Farmer: 2,090

• Riordan: 1,776

• Criqui: 1,677

• Chestnut: 1,281

We’re about 40 percent of the way done. Usually these early returns involve quite a few East Lawrence precincts.

School bond continues to roll: Yes: 3,286. No: 1,195

8:00 p.m.: Just reminder of the lay of the land here on the Lawrence City Commission race. The top three vote winners will take seats on the commission. The top two vote winners will receive four-year terms. The third-place finisher will receive a two-year term. Usually, the top two vote winners also will get a chance to serve as mayor for one year during the next four years.

In the lightly attended primary in February — remember the snow — Amyx finished first by more than 500 votes; Farmer was second; Riordan was third; Chestnut was fourth, about 300 votes out of third; Criqui was fifth; and Soden was sixth, about 500 votes out of third.

7:50: Information on some other races while we wait for the next round of votes to come in.

Baldwin City Mayor race:

• Jason Mock: 32 votes

• Marilyn Pearse: 22

• Bonnie Plumberg: 9

Baldwin City Council (Top 2 win):

• Katheryn Gerstner: 48

• Christi Darnell: 37

• Michael Paulick: 11

Eudora City Commission (Top 2 win):

• Scott Hopson: 18

• Tim Reazin: 18

• Jolene Born: 16

• Jerry Trober Sr.: 15

Lecompton City Mayor

• Sandra Jacquot: 10

• Mark Tunstall: 5

7:30 p.m.: I do have information about what precincts came out the strongest in advance voting. There were seven Lawrence precincts where more than 50 ballots were cast. They are:

• Langston Heights: 84

• Deerfied: 68

• Mustard Seed: 62

• Immanuel Lutheran: 59

• Prairie Park: 56

• First Southern Baptist: 53

• Liberty Memorial: 52

Today's observations at the polls suggested more votes were coming in from the west than the east side of town. Five of those seven locations above are what I would consider west Lawrence.

Factor that in as you look at the advance ballot totals. Mike Amyx has a pretty strong lead through the advance ballot stage, so he appears to be in good shape to win a fifth term on the commission. Soden is the surprise thus far, but spots No. 2 through No. 6 are separated by just 130 votes. We may have quite a race shaping up.

7:25 Advance votes are in, and the big news from it is that Leslie Soden finds herself in the top three after the advance ballots.

Here are the results:

Mike Amyx: 923

Jeremy Farmer: 591

Leslie Soden: 586

Terry Riordan: 554

Scott Criqui: 463

Rob Chestnut: 461

If these results hold, it will be big news. Soden was sixth in the primary election. In my memory, a sixth place finisher has never moved up into the top three in the general election.

RE turnout: voters choose whether to come to the polls or not, not voting is not a "no." This was pretty much overwhelming.

RE the rich boys PAC. I think Farmer and Riordan won IN SPITE of the PAC, not because of it. Amyx was conspicuously not endorsed and won overwhelmingly, while Selden almost made it. Honestly, the $$ made no difference, or if it did, it was negative.

explaining: that would mean the city would be divided into wards, say five for example, and each would elect its own city commissioner, instead of citywide beauty contests. historically much of lawrence has been vastly underrepresented on the commission.